Res Gestae

What may seem today to be routine, was, as recently as less than a lifetime ago, seen to be ambitious and overly optimistic. That was, as a young woman, and the first to do so in Queensland, to set up in practice as a barrister. This is the story, of how she did this, how she was received by her fellows at the Bar, and the judges, that Naida Haxton tells in Res Gestae - Things Done. Almost equally adventurous was her relocation on marriage, to Sydney, where she was completely unknown and without any network to encourage her. The book is not so much a memoir as an account of the times, and a meditation upon them and her part in them, as a barrister, a wife, and a mother. Her career took a turn, unusual enough for most barristers in modern times, but particularly so for a woman then. She specialised in law reporting and editing. This, an important and not well known branch of practice, has many illustrious members. They were the first to see the patterns in legal decisions that led to the systematisation of the Common Law which, despite its imperfections, and intrusions into it by ill-drawn legislation, remains a navigational star for freedom and common sense. Res Gestae - Things Done is in that honourable tradition. The Hon I D F Callinan AC